--ACE-- Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Okay, hear me out. Recently I became interested in the Kunio-Kun franchise, and decided to test the game: Downtown Special. (The name is bigger but I don't remember) That for those who don't know, it is one of the most INNOVATIVE AND SPECTACULAR NES games! Okay, seriously now, it's a Beat em Up, where you play as Kunio, a Japanese warrior who wants to find a cure for the curse that was placed on his master while dealing with his girlfriend's kidnapping. The game supports two players simultaneously, but if you play in singleplayer, kunio will still be accompanied by the second player, only it will be controlled by artificial intelligence. In the game menu you can change the settings to change the behavior of the AI. In the game, you must cross all of feudal Japan, looking for the minions and subordinates of the biggest *Gangster* (I couldn't find a better word) in Japan, until you reach him and defeat him. But your targets, are mobile, and will be walking around the map randomly, so you should go all over Japan after them. The game has cities with shops that can sell healing and food items and shops with armor and equippable weapons that boost your stats, (the best ones are found in secret shops) but that's not all! the subordinates you defeat can become your allies! some will offer themselves right away, for others you should have specific items in your inventory. the game also has a level up system, you can even move in the menu to determine the Growth Rate of the level ups. So in short, it's a beat em up, with shops, equips, an open world, recruitable enemies and brand new moves. A beat em up Rpg! Is there any other game like this? I would love to play, and I would also recommend everyone to play at least a little bit of Downtown Special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 While it very rarely has recruitable enemies, the Yakuza series is phenomenal beat-'em-up series that does most of the other things you mentioned. There aren't really stats in some of the games, but it is an open-world RPG with tons of stuff to do. Some games in the series have just one playable character, others have up to five, and then there's also the JRPG entry that isn't a beat-'em-up. Yakuza 0 is probably the best starting place for the series, and it sounds fairly similar to what you liked from here? It's a bit less of a traditional RPG than what you've described this one to be, but it's otherwise decently similar. It's a truly fantastic series, so I could recommend looking into this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapp Branniglenn Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Sounds like you're talking about this game. We never got that one. Of the original games in this series, I've only ever played River City Ransom, which is the first one. It has all the features you mentioned (minus the recruiting enemies thing), and it's probably not as refined as the game you played. I would more quickly recommend River City Girls. The premise of that game is that Kunio and his friend are kidnapped, and it's up to the girlfriends to save him. It's a very funny game with a great battle system and incredible soundtrack. And it has the usual RPG progression stuff. Highly recommended and it's getting a sequel this year where you can play as Marian, the kidnapped girlfriend of the Double Dragon series (the two series have occasionally been depicted as taking place in the same universe). As for other beat em up games with RPG elements, Scott Pilgrim vs The World is definitely taking a lot of the gameplay of River City games. Castle Crashers has leveling up. A Developer called Vanillaware made Odin Sphere, Muramasa, and Dragon's Crown. Dragon's Crown is the only one of those with co-op play but they all have RPG progression. Double Dragon Neon has shops, but it's a little lighter on the stat increasing. It's not a classic 2D style beat em up game, but I also recommend checking out the Yakuza series. Open world, beat em up fighting system, And really fun side content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FailWood Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 While it doesn't have recruitable enemies, I can recommend CrossCode. It has RPG progression elements and a skill grid where you can choose what abilities to learn and stats to increase. Music is pretty good, has a likeable characters, but has Zelda like dungeons (granted harder then in Zelda) that will test you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reality Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Beat em up with RPG--lite stystems like D&D over Mystara or Guardian Heroes were what came to my mind. Doesn't seem what you are looking for though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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